Until now, there hasn’t been an all-electric car fit for road-tripping. But Tesla’s Model S, due out late in 2012, is made for extended drives. Its battery goes up to 300 miles on a charge. Its cabin is spacious enough for seven passengers. And it can get up to cruising speed fast—the Model S accelerates from 0 to 60 in 5.6 seconds.
BIGGER BATTERY
At 85 kilowatt-hours, the Model S boasts more than triple the battery capacity of the Nissan Leaf. Its thousands of lithium-ion cells use a new electrode chemistry from Panasonic, which could allow them to store more power than other comparably sized cells.
FAST CHARGE
Tesla plans to install proprietary 440-volt charging stations (first along the I-5 Corridor between Los Angeles and San Francisco) built to match up with the Model S’s circuitry. They will provide a full charge in an hour. Standard chargers will require a full night.
TEMPERATURE CONTROL
To protect the motor, circuitry and battery from heat, channels filled with liquid coolant run through the components. Pumps cycle coolant through a front radiator and a pair of A/C condensers. This helps the motor deliver twice the power of its Roadster predecessor. Tesla Views: Tesla
LIGHT BODY
To increase the sedan’s range, the designers of the Model S kept its weight low with a body constructed from 97 percent aluminum. They added heavier structural steel only where necessary for safety: in central supports and front-end crash zones.
ROOMY CABIN
The Model S’s batteries sit beneath the floor in a large flat pack that spreads the width of the car and about two thirds of its length. This arrangement leaves ample space in the trunk for cargo or two backward-facing jump seats. The main interior holds five adults. Top Speed:130 mph
Apple This morning at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, Apple announced their newest version of iBooks, with a major twist that's designed to remove it from its position as a late-entry contender in the Kindle vs. Nook ebook battle. Instead, Apple's focusing on education, with the eventual aim of replacing paper textbooks with iPad versions. The new version of iBooks frees the app from its prior restrictions--now it can boast video, audio, interactive multitouch controls, and all kinds of new annotations. That's key to Apple's idea of the future of textbooks, which will look more like our friend Theodore Gray's amazing periodic table app The Elements than a static PDF. But text is still a major part of the new platform--these are textbooks, after all. You'll be able to read them in portrait or landscape, and make notes and annotations with digital stickies. Maybe the coolest part of the entire project is the automatic note-card creation: it'll combine all of your stickies automatically into digital versions of 3x5 note-cards for self-quizzing. Of course, there'll also be interactive quizzes throughout the book/app. Apple already has the big three textbook publishers on board (that'd be McGraw Hill, Houghton Mifflin, and Pearson, who combine to take 90 percent of the K-12 textbook market). But what's interesting is that Apple is starting out targeting high schools. The books will be cheaper, yes--textbooks will cost $15 or less--but shelling out for iPads is still a ridiculously expensive prospect for an American public high school, so hopefully there'll be some kind of (major) discount for schools. There'll also be a new platform for self-publishing, called iBooks Author, for Mac OS. According to the New York Times, it'll require "no programming knowledge" and will mostly provide templates for prospective textbook authors to use. iBooks 2 is available now for iPhone and iPad, though the textbook features are iPad-only.
By Clay DillowPosted 01.23.2012 at 12:18 pm24 Comments The F-35's First Night FlightLockheed Martin The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter hasn’t enjoyed a whole lot of good press lately, with a slew of budget overruns, technology concerns, and one very public grounding for the Marine Corps’ F-35B variant casting long shadows over the effort to develop America’s new fifth-generation fighter jet. But that hasn’t stopped the press team at Lockheed Martin from casting the F-35 in a more favorable light in these newly released images of the jet’s first night flight. The F-35A pictured here (that’s the conventional takeoff and landing Air Force variant) reportedly performed well during straight approaches at dusk, and we’re told that the test pilot described the cockpit lighting as the best he’d ever seen. The green exterior night formation lights set against the atmospheric effects of a California sunset make for some pretty good lighting as well.
By Clay DillowPosted 02.01.2012 at 4:29 pm6 Comments SuperDraco's Could One Day Allow Propulsive Landings on Other PlanetsSpaceX SpaceX’s dream of fielding a spacelaunch system that is completely reusable is inching forward with the successful test-firing of its new SuperDraco engine. The powerful new SuperDraco will be installed in the side walls of the next-gen Dragon spacecraft and provide up to 120,000 pounds of axial thrust, enabling not only on orbit maneuvering, but emergency escape from the rocket tower should something go awry during launch. The Draco engines currently used on the Dragon spacecraft allow the robotic resupply capsule to maneuver on orbit and orient itself during reentry, but SpaceX has bigger plans for a system that will one day be able to return all elements--including rocket stages--to Earth intact for reuse in later missions. That’s a tall order and a long way off. But the SuperDraco is a step in that direction.
TAGS
Technology, Clay Dillow, dragon capsule,launch escape systems, Space, SpaceX,superdracoMore powerful than the Draco, the eight SuperDracos that will reside in the side walls of the Dragon can essentially propel the Dragon capsule on their own, making it possible for astronauts on board to abort at any time during a launch and separate from the rocket--that is, the controlled explosion--hurling them skyward. That’s a huge advantage over previous launch abort systems, which could only be triggered successfully during the first few minutes of a launch. They can also be restarted multiple times and can be used repeatedly, meaning they wouldn’t have to be completely re-serviced each time a capsule went into space. During the recent tests at SpaceX’s Rocket Development Facility in Texas, the SuperDraco underwent full thrust firings, full duration firings, and a series of deep throttling demos, passing each test, we’re told, with flying colors. We’re still a ways away from that space capsule that can navigate itself back to the launchpad under its own propulsive force but as the video below shows, we’re getting there.
Tesla's Model S Sets a New Standard for Battery-Powered Cars
Tesla
TESLA MODEL S
Until now, there hasn’t been an all-electric car fit for road-tripping. But Tesla’s Model S, due out late in 2012, is made for extended drives. Its battery goes up to 300 miles on a charge. Its cabin is spacious enough for seven passengers. And it can get up to cruising speed fast—the Model S accelerates from 0 to 60 in 5.6 seconds.
BIGGER BATTERY
At 85 kilowatt-hours, the Model S boasts more than triple the battery capacity of the Nissan Leaf. Its thousands of lithium-ion cells use a new electrode chemistry from Panasonic, which could allow them to store more power than other comparably sized cells.FAST CHARGE
Tesla plans to install proprietary 440-volt charging stations (first along the I-5 Corridor between Los Angeles and San Francisco) built to match up with the Model S’s circuitry. They will provide a full charge in an hour. Standard chargers will require a full night.TEMPERATURE CONTROL
To protect the motor, circuitry and battery from heat, channels filled with liquid coolant run through the components. Pumps cycle coolant through a front radiator and a pair of A/C condensers. This helps the motor deliver twice the power of its Roadster predecessor.LIGHT BODY
To increase the sedan’s range, the designers of the Model S kept its weight low with a body constructed from 97 percent aluminum. They added heavier structural steel only where necessary for safety: in central supports and front-end crash zones.ROOMY CABIN
The Model S’s batteries sit beneath the floor in a large flat pack that spreads the width of the car and about two thirds of its length. This arrangement leaves ample space in the trunk for cargo or two backward-facing jump seats. The main interior holds five adults.Top Speed:130 mph
Range: 300 miles
Seats: Five adults, two children
Price: $77,400
Apple's New iBooks App for iPad Aims to Replace High School Textbooks
Apple
This morning at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, Apple announced their newest version of iBooks, with a major twist that's designed to remove it from its position as a late-entry contender in the Kindle vs. Nook ebook battle. Instead, Apple's focusing on education, with the eventual aim of replacing paper textbooks with iPad versions.
The new version of iBooks frees the app from its prior restrictions--now it can boast video, audio, interactive multitouch controls, and all kinds of new annotations. That's key to Apple's idea of the future of textbooks, which will look more like our friend Theodore Gray's amazing periodic table app The Elements than a static PDF.
But text is still a major part of the new platform--these are textbooks, after all. You'll be able to read them in portrait or landscape, and make notes and annotations with digital stickies. Maybe the coolest part of the entire project is the automatic note-card creation: it'll combine all of your stickies automatically into digital versions of 3x5 note-cards for self-quizzing. Of course, there'll also be interactive quizzes throughout the book/app.
Apple already has the big three textbook publishers on board (that'd be McGraw Hill, Houghton Mifflin, and Pearson, who combine to take 90 percent of the K-12 textbook market). But what's interesting is that Apple is starting out targeting high schools. The books will be cheaper, yes--textbooks will cost $15 or less--but shelling out for iPads is still a ridiculously expensive prospect for an American public high school, so hopefully there'll be some kind of (major) discount for schools.
There'll also be a new platform for self-publishing, called iBooks Author, for Mac OS. According to the New York Times, it'll require "no programming knowledge" and will mostly provide templates for prospective textbook authors to use.
iBooks 2 is available now for iPhone and iPad, though the textbook features are iPad-only.
In Its First Night Flight, the F-35 Soars at Sundown
By Clay DillowPosted 01.23.2012 at 12:18 pm24 CommentsThe F-35 Joint Strike Fighter hasn’t enjoyed a whole lot of good press lately, with a slew of budget overruns, technology concerns, and one very public grounding for the Marine Corps’ F-35B variant casting long shadows over the effort to develop America’s new fifth-generation fighter jet. But that hasn’t stopped the press team at Lockheed Martin from casting the F-35 in a more favorable light in these newly released images of the jet’s first night flight.
The F-35A pictured here (that’s the conventional takeoff and landing Air Force variant) reportedly performed well during straight approaches at dusk, and we’re told that the test pilot described the cockpit lighting as the best he’d ever seen. The green exterior night formation lights set against the atmospheric effects of a California sunset make for some pretty good lighting as well.
Video: SpaceX Test-Fires Its New Super-Powerful Capsule Engines
By Clay DillowPosted 02.01.2012 at 4:29 pm6 CommentsSpaceX’s dream of fielding a spacelaunch system that is completely reusable is inching forward with the successful test-firing of its new SuperDraco engine. The powerful new SuperDraco will be installed in the side walls of the next-gen Dragon spacecraft and provide up to 120,000 pounds of axial thrust, enabling not only on orbit maneuvering, but emergency escape from the rocket tower should something go awry during launch.
The Draco engines currently used on the Dragon spacecraft allow the robotic resupply capsule to maneuver on orbit and orient itself during reentry, but SpaceX has bigger plans for a system that will one day be able to return all elements--including rocket stages--to Earth intact for reuse in later missions. That’s a tall order and a long way off. But the SuperDraco is a step in that direction.
TAGS
Technology, Clay Dillow, dragon capsule,launch escape systems, Space, SpaceX,superdracoMore powerful than the Draco, the eight SuperDracos that will reside in the side walls of the Dragon can essentially propel the Dragon capsule on their own, making it possible for astronauts on board to abort at any time during a launch and separate from the rocket--that is, the controlled explosion--hurling them skyward. That’s a huge advantage over previous launch abort systems, which could only be triggered successfully during the first few minutes of a launch.They can also be restarted multiple times and can be used repeatedly, meaning they wouldn’t have to be completely re-serviced each time a capsule went into space. During the recent tests at SpaceX’s Rocket Development Facility in Texas, the SuperDraco underwent full thrust firings, full duration firings, and a series of deep throttling demos, passing each test, we’re told, with flying colors. We’re still a ways away from that space capsule that can navigate itself back to the launchpad under its own propulsive force but as the video below shows, we’re getting there.